Artificial intelligence considered dangerous
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 Posted in Science | Comments OffThere are of course a great number of books and movies about the dangers of robots taking over the world. This kind of science fiction is generally not taken seriously or considered relevant for current AI research. This is mostly ...
Single cell sentience
Sunday, March 14th, 2010 Posted in Science | Comments OffThere is a debate whether thoughts or memories are physically located somewhere in a brain. It is still unclear whether there exist such a thing as a "grandmother braincell" that activates whenever you think of your grandmother. Or more clearly: ...
The difference between time and space
Sunday, January 4th, 2009 Posted in Science | No Comments »In this post I would like to explain the way nature seems to choose the most simple and elegant way, but it is often thought to be complex due to the limited minds of us humans. For this I will ...
Animating the living cell
Sunday, October 5th, 2008 Posted in Science | No Comments »I find biochemistry intriguing. The most complicated reactions take place in this messy fluid inside living cells, carefully balancing the laws of entropy and energy to maintain order. Now I came across the channel ndsuvirtualcell in YouTube. This is some ...
Schizophrenia
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 Posted in Science | No Comments »Schizophrenia is a very complex disease or diseases. People who have schizophrenia have recurring episodes, psychoses, which are characterized by delusions, often paranoid or megalomanic, and hallucinations. Thoughts can be disorganized and a sufferer from psychosis has difficulty determining what ...
Why we need gasoline tax, and how to lower fuel consumption
Sunday, June 15th, 2008 Posted in Science, politics | 1 Comment »Prices are high So the truckers are protesting against high gas-prices in several countries. The truckers are unhappy and demand compensation from their governments, and to increase the pressure, their actions are directed at the general public. This is all wrong. Everybody ...
How to switch from physics to biology
Friday, February 15th, 2008 Posted in Science | 3 Comments »My friend Milan van Hoek has finished his PhD thesis in theoretical biology, titled Evolutionary Dynamics of Metabolic Adaptation. He will defend it on March 5th. A link to an online bookstore will be provided once it becomes available.